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Related: About this forumMuslim Woman Sues Religious-Freedom Commission For Discrimination
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/25/muslim-woman-sues-religious-freedom-commission-for-discrimination.htmlby Sarah Wildman Jun 25, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
Safiya Ghori-Ahmad claims the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom rescinded a job offer because she is Muslim. As Sarah Wildman reports, this isnt the first time the commission has come under fire.
Safiya Ghori-Ahmad is one of those overqualified types that Washington, DC, seems to attract. At 31, she is fluent in Urdu and Hindi, and holds both a law degree and a masters in international development. She was born and raised in Arkansas to a family who had emigrated from India. You probably wouldnt have heard of her, except that earlier this month she filed suit in federal court, claiming that a job she was offered at a government agency was taken away from her because shes Muslim. The kicker? The agency that rescinded the offer was created to fight religious discrimination around the world.
Back in 2009, Ghori-Ahmad was offered a position as a South Asia staff analyst for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. But, her complaint says, commissioners there rescinded the offer when they learned of her heritage. Among other things, she claims, she was asked to minimize her work in the Muslim world, because several commissioners were uncomfortable with Muslims. In the suit, Ghori-Ahmad also claims one staffer recommended she call in sick to avoid a few of the commissioners on days theyd be in the office.
The suit is the most high-profile attack to date on USCIRF (Yoo-serf inside the beltway), which was created in 1998 under the International Religious Freedom Act, and consists of a slate of unpaid commissioners who travel on fact-finding missions abroad, issue recommendations to the State Department, the President, and Congress, and flag countries where religious persecution is particularly bad, or has recently ticked upward.
-snip-
One of the more explosive claims in the suit comes from an internal email that said hiring a Muslim to investigate religious freedom in Pakistan was akin to hiring an IRA activist to research the UK twenty years ago.
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Muslim Woman Sues Religious-Freedom Commission For Discrimination (Original Post)
cbayer
Jun 2012
OP
Perhaps USCIRF is only interested in religious freedoms for Christians? Wouldn't surprise me.
kestrel91316
Jun 2012
#1
Sounds like Christian fundies managed to get in charge of the thing and now are making sure
kestrel91316
Jun 2012
#3
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)1. Perhaps USCIRF is only interested in religious freedoms for Christians? Wouldn't surprise me.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)2. That charge has been made repeatedly and looks like it might be true.
Particularly in light of some of the members who have been nominated.
They have specifically been accused of Islamophobia.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)3. Sounds like Christian fundies managed to get in charge of the thing and now are making sure
that the terrible global persecution the poor Christians are suffering gets addressed. And besides, we all know that Islam isn't a "true religion".